Manchester City: Not great to be back on the road again

Manchester City’s home record has been the best of any club this year, but is their performance away letting them down?

Willie Nelson may have been excited to get back on the road again, but clearly he wasn’t much of a Manchester City fan. It’s true that, to varying degrees, every team in professional sports prefers to play at home, otherwise it wouldn’t be a home “advantage”. Having said that, the jury is still out if playing at the hilariously misnamed Vitality Stadium provides much advantage to Bournemouth, as doubtless they’d fit more of their supporters in the away seating at the Etihad, assuming they have more. Regardless, the standard is, was and always will be that of better, more consistent play at home than on the road. Sorry Willie.

Now, unfortunately, Manchester City this year have taken this seeming golden rule and run with it. There’s a lot of hyperbole flying around about the Sky Blues’ performances away from home, but this much is fact – in the last 11 Premier League games on the road, City have won 4, drawn 4 and lost 3, taking only just half of the 33 points on offer. I’d be pretty happy with that if I was Gus Hiddink right now, but Manuel Pellegrini surely must expect a lot better. Were it not for the stuttering of their fellow-contending rivals, then the table would likely be a pretty ugly sight for Citizens right now.

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All the same, City can’t expect things to stay the way they are for long. Following their, frankly scary, 2-2 draw with West Ham United, on the road of course, they now sit 3 points behind Leicester City at the top with Tottenham Hotspur now just 2 away from leapfrogging them. As ludicrous as that sounds, it actually makes a lot of sense for those who have been watching the games.

Take the draw with the Hammers for example, usually stalwart players saw marked drops in performance that can’t simply be put down to playing a good team. A comedy of errors from Nicolas Otamendi leading to the home team taking the lead from a throw in (!) actually isn’t that surprising given how disappointing the Argentine has been. But how about David Silva? Overall, it was difficult to pinpoint any positive effect he had on the game, yet very easy to see the opposite. Misplacing passes, outrunning the ball and general pensiveness combined for a game which only adds fuel to the fire that he is struggling for form.

Perhaps he is. Silva has managed only one goal away from home this season, and, as if that wasn’t bad enough, he hasn’t made a goal assist away from home in any competition since West Brom on August 10^th. Another player with “On the Road-itis,”, sadly, seems to be Kevin De Bruyne. The 24 year old is prolific and easily among City’s best players this year, but that doesn’t mean his performances don’t see drop-offs when away from home. He’s managed 3 goals in a sky blue jersey on the road, which is good but pales in comparison to the 8 he’s bagged at the Etihad.

That may only be two examples, but it’s worth noting they happen to be two of the most important players on the squad. With Sergio Aguero finding form again, the burden is heavy on Silva and DeBruyne to give him the support he needs to do what he does best. All the same, it’s unfair to put the blame solely on their boots alone.

What this all adds up to is a Manchester City team that fails to inspire confidence when outside the city of Manchester. Their home record of 9 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses is the best in the league. Their away record, as mentioned above, of 4 wins, 4 draws and 3 losses is the 9^th best (See: Stoke, Watford etc). What’s worse is that this is becoming progressively more profound over the season. Narrow the criteria to six games and City still have the best in the league home record (4 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss) but now suddenly find themselves with the only 12^th best on the road (1 win, 3 draws, 2 losses). This should set alarm bells ringing.

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But does it? It remains to be seen how Pellegrini intends to change the dynamic of the side when not at home. As things stand, little seems to be getting done differently and clearly throwing the same side, in the same formation, against an opponent in their home turf to see if it sticks is unwise. If Manchester City want to claw back the deficit and finish the year holding the Premier League trophy aloft yet again, something needs to give. Until then, at least for now we’re coming back home.